"Just so you know, let's not turn it into a thing..."Detroit native, Preston Whitmore's 1995 debut, "The Walking Dead," marked a cinematic first -- the premiere "black Vietnam film" -- casting choices: Allen Payne, Vonte Sweet, Joe Morton and Eddie Griffin fill the key roles.Whitmore cut his teeth on the small screen, as one of the scripters of the sitcom "Malcolm & Eddie." With The Cosby Show's Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Walking Dead mainstay Eddie Griffin in central roles, and Joel Madison as the series creator, UPN landed a four-season home run. Scripting duties on a first-run theatrical feature followed, summer 1996's criminal-on-the-run actioner "Fled," with Laurence Fishburne, Selma Hayek and Stephen Baldwin.Four years sans credits followed for Whitmore, until he scripted a trio of features just after the turn of the millennium. He authored the prison picture "Lockdown," which stars Richard T. Jone, Gabriel Casseus and others. Thereafter, Whitmore produced and penned the teleplay of the psychological thriller "Blood Crime" with Johnathan Schaech and James Caan, and adapted the same year's social conscience drama "Civil Brand" from his own story. The independent production won the Blockbuster Award for Best Film and Best Actor (Clifton Powell); the 2002 American Black Film Festival Audience Award for Best Film; and the Special Jury Prize at the 2002 Urban world Film Festival. It was also a selection at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival.The multi-talented Whitmore also provided a production rewrite of MGM's Be Cool -- the sequel to the studio's hit action comedy Get Shorty -- starring John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Danny DeVito and The RockIn 2004, Whitmore harkened back to the big screen and reclaimed the director's chair, for the straight-to-video crime thriller "Doing Hard Time," which he also scripted. A kind of African-American spin on "In the Bedroom," crossed with the filmmaker's own “Lockdown," the picture tells the story of a father (Boris Kodjoe) denied justice in the wake of his son's murder, who seeks deliberate incarceration to execute the men (Michael K. Williams) who murdered his son.Whitmore also wrote and directed a follow-up, 2006's first-run big screen effort "Crossover." That picture stars Anthony Mackie, Wayne Brady, Eva Pigford and Wesley Jonathan in its tale of an all-black underground basketball team, who plays in a converted Detroit train station, and was released by Sony Pictures in September 2006. Preston is currently in production on Sony Pictures, "This Christmas," starring DelRoy Lindo, Loretta Devine, Idris Elba, Regina King, Columbus Short, Mekhi Pfier, Sharon Leal, Lauren London, Chris Brown, Keith Robertson, Ricky Harris, Brandon T. Jackson and David Banner.
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